Capcom Minicute Repro - Player 2 button 2 not working

[Sky64]

Hey everyone,

I have a Capcom Minicute repro from Hurist, running it with a Mistercade through a Jamma harness connected to a Wells Gardner 19" monitor via an isolation transformer. Everything is working fine except for the Player 2 "Button 2." I used a multimeter to check the continuity between the two wires on B2, and it showed a connection. Initially, I suspected a loose pin on the Jamma harness for B2. I replaced the pin (Pin 6), got a new wire for the button, and connected it directly to the Jamma edge avoiding the JST connection, but it still doesn't work.

The strange part is that if I lightly touch the wired button's spade connector (not the ground connector) with two fingers, B2 works fine. This makes me think it's a grounding issue. I wiped my Mistercade, reinstalled and updated everything, but no luck. I bought a new Jamma edge (Hirose 56 pin) to test and am yet to receive it, but I'm unsure if the wiring on my Jamma is correct or not, specifically for the ground, or if it's the Mistercade. I attached some photos below.

I tested the wiring from Button 1 and Button 3 on "Button 2," and those inputs register (button 1 and button 3). This shows that the physical button for "B2" is working. It's puzzling that there may be a grounding issue when all buttons work in a grounded daisy chain except for B2. Any advice on what I should do?

Some have said:
- Get shielded wire, you may be getting interference.
- Get a new Jamma connector (on it's way).
- Get a test board (I have the opportunity to get a CPS1 test board).

Sorry for the lengthy post, I also apologize if I've stated anything incorrectly, I'm new to Jamma/Mistercade/A lot of this. I really appreciate your help!

Thank you!

 

[rewrite]

I used a multimeter to check the continuity between the two wires on B2, and it showed a connection.

It shouldn't unless you've pressed the button down. I'm assuming something here's mistyped given the rest of your post, but it shouldn't show continuity if the button is unpressed.

It should be :
Pressed: continuity
Not pressed: no continuity.

You're also making the situation more complex than it should be by trying to replace different things and not starting with a JAMMA board to begin with.

Don't redo the entire JAMMA connector, there's no need over one button.

- Get shielded wire, you may be getting interference.

This is preposterous and you should not let that person suggest anything to you regarding arcade games moving forward. I don't mean to be rude, but it's absolutely made up BS you're being fed from someone who clearly doesn't know anything at all in this realm.

- Get a new Jamma connector (on it's way).

Super overkill and isn't likely to change anything given the info you've given us. Arcade machines aren't complex, don't make things harder on yourself than they need to be.

- Get a test board (I have the opportunity to get a CPS1 test board).

This should've been step 1 in buying an arcade cabinet, if only even just to make sure that the cabinet works properly before introducing things that aren't quite the norm. CPS1 is a rough choice since they are dying pretty quickly from aging customs, but any JAMMA board that uses 3 buttons is better than no JAMMA board.

The wire on button 2, the blue one, the connector is poorly crimped on, and there are several bits where it was pinched or bent. Adding in this:

The strange part is that if I lightly touch the wired button's spade connector (not the ground connector) with two fingers, B2 works fine.

it really seems like your crimp job is the problem. I'd cut that wire back half an inch, and solder it on directly and see how it is (will eliminate another potentially poor crimping job from the equation long enough to test.)

 

[rewrite]

You can see 3 spots where it's creased (and potentially severed, and would make a connection if pressed with your finger) and that the connector itself has been bent by your crimper (I'd guess you used too small of a size when crimping).

 

[Sky64]

It shouldn't unless you've pressed the button down. I'm assuming something here's mistyped given the rest of your post, but it shouldn't show continuity if the button is unpressed.

It should be :
Pressed: continuity
Not pressed: no continuity.

You're also making the situation more complex than it should be by trying to replace different things and not starting with a JAMMA board to begin with.

Don't redo the entire JAMMA connector, there's no need over one button.


This is preposterous and you should not let that person suggest anything to you regarding arcade games moving forward. I don't mean to be rude, but it's absolutely made up BS you're being fed from someone who clearly doesn't know anything at all in this realm.


Super overkill and isn't likely to change anything given the info you've given us.


This should've been step 1 in buying an arcade cabinet, if only even just to make sure that the cabinet works properly before introducing things that aren't quite the norm. CPS1 is a rough choice since they are dying pretty quickly from aging customs, but any JAMMA board that uses 3 buttons is better than no JAMMA board.

The wire on button 2, the blue one, the connector is poorly crimped on, and there are several bits where it was pinched or bent. Adding in this:

it really seems like your crimp job is the problem. I'd cut that wire back half an inch, and solder it on directly and see how it is (will eliminate another potentially poor crimping job from the equation long enough to test.)

Thanks for the advice, will get the CPS1 board since it's quite cheap and can test the main buttons I'm having issues with.

You can see 3 spots where it's creased (and potentially severed, and would make a connection if pressed with your finger) and that the connector itself has been bent by your crimper (I'd guess you used too small of a size when crimping).

With Hurist's original wire, I would touch the spade and the same thing would happen. I cut his off and did a horrible job crimping a new one on and tried it again, still needed to be touched. I cut a brand new piece of wire, put a good crimped spade on it, connected it to the button, and then directly wired that to the Jamma connector, the issue still persists, I apologize for the lack of explanation.

 

[Sky64]

It shouldn't unless you've pressed the button down. I'm assuming something here's mistyped given the rest of your post, but it shouldn't show continuity if the button is unpressed.

It should be :
Pressed: continuity
Not pressed: no continuity.

You're also making the situation more complex than it should be by trying to replace different things and not starting with a JAMMA board to begin with.

Don't redo the entire JAMMA connector, there's no need over one button.


This is preposterous and you should not let that person suggest anything to you regarding arcade games moving forward. I don't mean to be rude, but it's absolutely made up BS you're being fed from someone who clearly doesn't know anything at all in this realm.


Super overkill and isn't likely to change anything given the info you've given us. Arcade machines aren't complex, don't make things harder on yourself than they need to be.



This should've been step 1 in buying an arcade cabinet, if only even just to make sure that the cabinet works properly before introducing things that aren't quite the norm. CPS1 is a rough choice since they are dying pretty quickly from aging customs, but any JAMMA board that uses 3 buttons is better than no JAMMA board.

The wire on button 2, the blue one, the connector is poorly crimped on, and there are several bits where it was pinched or bent. Adding in this:

it really seems like your crimp job is the problem. I'd cut that wire back half an inch, and solder it on directly and see how it is (will eliminate another potentially poor crimping job from the equation long enough to test.)

Thank you for your response, really appreciate it. I will go ahead and get the CPS1 board since it's cheap and can test the button I'm having issues with. If there is another Jamma board you'd recommend instead I can look into that too. Thank you for your brutal honesty, I'm still new to this and have been trying to figure things out.

 

[rewrite]

Interesting.

Can you reply to this bit here?

It should be :
Pressed: continuity
Not pressed: no continuity.

Is this accurate on your end?

 

[rewrite]

Thank you for your response, really appreciate it. I will go ahead and get the CPS1 board since it's cheap and can test the button I'm having issues with. If there is another Jamma board you'd recommend instead I can look into that too. Thank you for your brutal honesty, I'm still new to this and have been trying to figure things out.

Literally anything that uses 3 buttons. That way you can test all 3 on the JAMMA edge. Whatever you can get your hands on known-working and dirt cheap that way if you're ever testing a new cab's power supply and you fry it you're out next to nothing.

 

[Sky64]

Thanks for the advice, will get the CPS1 board since it's quite cheap and can test the main buttons I'm having issues with.

With Hurist's original wire, I would touch the spade and the same thing would happen. I cut his off and did a horrible job crimping a new one on and tried it again, still needed to be touched. I cut a brand new piece of wire, put a good crimp

ed spade on it, connected it to the button, and then directly wired that to the Jamma connector, the issue still persists, I apologize for the lack of explanation.

This is the original connector

Interesting.

Can you reply to this bit here?


Is this accurate on your end?

I can verify tomorrow, I apologize as I'm new to multi-meters, thank you again. If I recall, I would press the "B" button and have the meter set to continuity, it would then make a beeping sound. When testing the voltage on this particular button as well (when pressing it), it had a slightly lower number than the others.

 

[Sky64]

Literally anything that uses 3 buttons. That way you can test all 3 on the JAMMA edge. Whatever you can get your hands on known-working and dirt cheap that way if you're ever testing a new cab's power supply and you fry it you're out next to nothing.

Okay, I will start searching, I've primarily only messed with pinball and a few Nintendo cabs, so I greatly appreciate you!

 

[rewrite]

I can verify tomorrow, I apologize as I'm new to multi-meters

Nothing to apologize over, everyone starts somewhere!

Basically set it to continuity, put the leads on each of the button pins, and it should read OL or something and not beep. Same as whatever it reads when you just have a lead in each hand touching nothing.

And when you depress it it should read 0 (or real close to) and beep obnoxiously at you.

 

[Sky64]

Nothing to apologize, everyone starts somewhere!

Basically set it to continuity, put the leads on each of the button pins, and it should read OL or something and not beep. Same as whatever it reads when you just have a lead in each hand touching nothing.

And when you depress it it should read 0 (or real close to) and beep obnoxiously at you.

I will 100% verify this tomorrow. Your friend who hooked me up with the cab has been an awesome help too, really respect the knowledge/dedication of this community. Thank you again.

 

[rewrite]

I will 100% verify this tomorrow. Your friend who hooked me up with the cab has been an awesome help too, really respect the knowledge/dedication of this community. Thank you again.

@theoddtech is a straight shooter. Great guy in my book.

And in general you'll always find folks willing to teach in this hobby as long as you're willing to learn. Soon as you're not willing to learn any more though, most folks will drop you like a hot potato, ha.

 

[rewrite]

Just for fun, see if the wiring for button 2 works on button 4 or 5 or something.

I know you've done the opposite and run different wires to the buttons, but it doesn't hurt to check both ways and double-confirm it's the wiring.

 

[theoddtech]

Hey hey! Thanks for the kind words @rewrite! I was just thinking the same thing re: trying to swap the wires for button 2 to another button to see if the button or the wire is the issue. If touching the spades works it's probably a bad button?

 

[Sky64]

Hey all,

I tried taking the wiring from button 2 (blue wire, black ground) and testing it on the button 1 and 3. When doing so, the same issue would persist. I also took the wiring from buttons 1 and 3, connected it to the button 2 all separately, and when pressing the button it would fire the button 1 and button 3 inputs correctly. This makes me believe that the button 2 isn't busted, but once again I'm new to this and who really knows.

 

[Sky64]

I heard that the Jamma harness brand used in this project often has problems with grounding wires not being soldered properly to the Jamma connector. The heat shrink used also makes it hard to see if the connections are good or not. Even though I could cut off the shrink to check, it's weird that every other button works fine in a daisy chain, except for the "b" button. This makes me think it might not be a grounding problem...

 

[nem]

This makes me think it might not be a grounding problem...

There's a very easy way to rule this out. Take the ground connector from one of the working buttons and swap it to the button that isn't working.

Anyway, what I would do next is I would continuity check the connection for P2B2 from the jamma harness to the button. One meter lead on the harness pin, the other on the spade connector.

 

[Sky64]

There's a very easy way to rule this out. Take the ground connector from one of the working buttons and swap it to the button that isn't working.

Anyway, what I would do next is I would continuity check the connection for P2B2 from the jamma harness to the button. One meter lead on the harness pin, the other on the spade connector.

Hey how's it going, I did the first part of this and took the ground from a working button and swapped it to the "b button" that wasn't working, this lead to the same result of the b button not working.

When I get home tonight I will do what rewrite stated previously and also check the continuity between P2B2 and the Jamma harness. Thank you very much for your help!

I will hopefully be ordering a Jamma board as well to test this, it's just unlikely the issue is my Mistercade setup.

 

[rewrite]

Even though I could cut off the shrink to check, it's weird that every other button works fine in a daisy chain, except for the "b" button. This makes me think it might not be a grounding problem...

Yep.

I'll tack on to what @nem said with:
Wiggle the wire around when you're doing your continuity check on that wire. See if it drops in and out.

 

[Sky64]

Alright, everyone, I have some updates... I took my multimeter and set it to continuity with the cab turned on. I touched the b2 color wire spade with the red probe and the ground wire spade with the black probe. When set to continuity, my multimeter shows a number of "1." When touching the two spade connectors with each probe, and pressing the button, it begins to *beep* and the number drops to 0. I tested this on two other buttons and the same exact thing happens.

The next thing I did was touch the blue wire's spade connector and the soldered end that's on the Jamma connector. the multimeter immediately started beeping when set to continuity.

For both of these tests, I also wiggled the wire around while set to continuity, and when pressing the button the *beep* still occurred without a change in number.

Is the blue wire that's connected from the b2 button to the Jamma connector supposed to *beep* without pressing the button?

Could this be something involving a setting potentially on the Mistercade, or my PSU? I have my CRT hooked up to an Iso transformer and see no visual issues but I do hear sometimes a *ringing* noise, I know some users attached a capacitor to help with this if I recall correctly...

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated @rewrite @nem

Thank you!